Sryth Wiki:Editors Guide
Editors' Guide The Sryth Wiki community is here to create a free, accurate, and useful encyclopedia of the game of Sryth that anyone can edit. This page is a collection of advice for editors. Some are applicable to all wikis and some are specific for the Sryth Wiki. Take your time and don't let yourself be overwhelmed by the amount of links. On Being An Editor * Be bold. Wikis are meant to be edited and improved. * Be polite. Just as you edit pages, others may edit what you write. Do not take it personally! You wouldn't be here if you didn't want to make improvements to make the Sryth Wiki as good as it can possibly be. * Take your time. It's better to be accurate and right than waste time correcting a mistake. * Pace yourself. If you're new to wikitexting, it's easy to get carried away tackling and overcoming the learning curve. Don't crash and burn out. * Ask questions. Have patience if something eludes you. That's what Talk and Discussion pages are for. The administrators and veteran users of the site are more than glad to help. Visit their Talk pages and leave a message. ** You can find administrators , or you can check for a full user list. ** Sort the table by "Last logged in" to make sure you're asking an active user. ** Some very knowledgeable members of the community prefer to stick to the forum. For game-related questions, it might elicit faster answers. * Document as you go along. Open a notepad or your favorite word processor and save notes. * Research your data. Gather the information you need before proceeding to edit. * Be precise and concise. Remember Occam's Razor. The simplest explanation is usually the best one. What Not To Do Here is a list of things you can avoid: * Anonymous edits (specially if the associated IP has few edits) carry less respect with them. If you update some interesting detail or tweak of the game mechanics, or a little explored path of a quest while not logged in, your facts can (and sometimes will) be doubted. Please log in so we can know who's contributing. * Don't start a massive redesign of the site before learning the basics. Your idea might already be implemented in an obscure corner of the wiki, or there may be already a logic to what you see as chaotic. Don't ask for permission for simple edits, but ask for guidance in big ones. Think big, act carefully. * Don't add personal comments in article pages (like "That was what happened for me"). That's what Talk (Discussion) pages are for. If you're unsure about a certain detail, and cannot ascertain it for yourself with more testing, put it on the Talk page for others to review, or confirm it on the forum. Article pages are (ideally) for facts, not opinions. As with all, there are exceptions to this rule; experience will teach you about them. Tools of the Trade * If you do not have an account: ** If you've done some editing, the system will automatically invite you to create an account and join the community. ** If you arrived on this page by other means, click on the Create An Account button on the top right of most pages. * . * For an introduction to templates on this site, see Sryth Wiki:Templates. * One often ignored resource for new editors is your user page. If you are logged in, click on your name to go to your user page. Your User Page can also be used as a personal Sandbox. Also of note is your Preferences page. You can change a number of things here to aid in your tasks (see below). * Remember to check the Discussion for a page to see if anyone else is working on it, or if there's information there relevant to your edit. * For a list of editors (users) on this site, see . * See also The Articles of Faith for standard tools and templates used on this site. Mixed information * Starting a wiki * About this wiki. Newcomers Please don't bite the newcomer. The Sryth Wiki is improved through the hard work of regular editors, but also through anonymous contributions made by newcomers. New editors have interesting and fresh views on old matters, and that's very valuable. Remember, all of us were new editors once. Even the most experienced are still newcomers about something. Preferences There are a great deal of customizable switches in your Preferences. We'll try to cover here some of the more useful ones: ;My info tab * Signature: you can customize your signature. For example, if you put Scarbrowtalk you'll get Scarbrowtalk * Site layouts. If you're an old editor from Wikipedia, you can switch the site's skin to Monobook (it only affects you, and only while logged-in). See more tips at Sryth Wiki:How to cope with Oasis ;Followed pages tab * It's recommended to activate the "Make my followed pages list private" to avoid Wikia making them public. How to Edit * For general editing guidelines on wiki sites, read this. * For more specific information related to this site: ** The Community Portal. ** . * Pages have sections that are delineated by different header levels. These can be edited individually. It saves time and effort and relieves the traffic burden on the site. However, if you find you have to make edits to more than one section, edit the whole page instead. This lessens the edit history our dear Administrators need to wade through to keep track of what's going on where and when. * The Sandbox is a good place to conduct test edits without the consequences of altering an article. Beginning and senior editors are encouraged to use it prior to making major changes. The Wikitext Editor * The editor is your gateway into the inner world of a wiki site. It is through its use that changes to documents are effected and saved. For general guidelines on how to edit on any wiki site, read this. If you want to use your own editor to cut and paste to and from the wiki editor, read this. * You have a toolbar on the upper side of the wiki editor. Hover your mouse pointer over the buttons toolbar to see what each section does, and use "more" for a list of useful wikitext shortcuts. * Before you click on the Publish button, Preview your changes as many times as necessary before committing. Remember to check the Minor edit box or enter a short Summary of the changes you've made, for historical purposes and to aid other editors in the future understand the changes you've made. External Editors * For general information of using an external text editor, see here. * Information on offline versions of wiki software can be found here. In particular, check out Tiddlywiki. Advanced Editing Resources If you have the basics down, but need help or guidance with advanced editing features such as templates, parser functions, HTML, etc. the following links may be of use. * ' ' - The first place to search for a topic of interest. Often leads to more specific pages. * - list of supported HTML tags * - an introduction and how-to make templates. For list of current templates supported on this Wiki, check out Category:Templates. * Parser Functions Syntax - MediaWiki's list of Parser Functions, and their syntax/usage. * String Functions - MediaWiki's list of String Functions, and their syntax/usage. * Magic Words - Information and usage of Magic Words. * Category Trees - Information on category trees. To view a category tree for this Wiki's categories, look here. Specific Sryth Wiki Guidelines * We have a rather complete Category tree. Explore it at length. A big part of the Category management is automatically done via templates. * See How to document Items and Quests. A big part of the wiki are the Item and Quest pages. They even have their own namespaces. * Linking items and quest pages: There are a few special templates that help linking of Quests and Item pages appear less unwieldy, or eliminate the need for excessive typing. ** Template:Quest - builds a link to a Quest page using . ** Template:Item - builds a link to an Item page using . * For a list of help pages, see its category under Help. On Uploading Maps and Files * For help on uploading images in general, see . * There's a naming convention for maps uploaded to this site. Visit maps for more information. * You can use a handy Excel spreadsheet to semi-automatically create standard-looking maps. More information on Maps spreadsheet * Images that are related to Sryth but are not maps can be found at miscellaneous images. * Information on images not related to Sryth is at images. * The image upload interface is at . * You can see all of Sryth Wiki images on the Images category. The Articles of Faith The following articles can help you understand specific ideas and topics the authors deemed noteworthy. This may include links to templates whose documentation offer useful usage information. |A banner indicating an active edit is being done on the page or section in which it is found.|Template | |The standard item box we all love and cherish. Preload is here.|Template | |The standard quest box that adorns many pages of this site. Preload is here.|Template | |This template builds a link to the game's reference system.|Template | |A banner indicating the page it is on is undergoing some revisions and changes.|Template | |A banner indicating the page is in need of editing help in one or more optionally specified areas.|Template | |A template that allows an itembox or questbox to receive an assigned heading level in the article's TOC.|Template | |Standard way to refer checks encountered in the game.|Template | |Standard way to refer combats encountered in the game.|Template }} Fait Accompli This section cites the various accomplishments of editors, past and present, that the Administrators deemed are worthy of special mention. High five! ;First batch * The Spaghetti Code Mention to Havoc and Octarinemage for their astounding work on CSS and Templates. * The High Stamina Mantle of Power to Scarbrow, (yes, I'm shamelessly awarding myself) for the original migration of the wiki and general work thereafter. * The Legendary Sage Mention to Joddelle for the initial (and continuing) work of the full Items documentation. * The Enthusiasm Award to Hastifer and Wetheril for quick learning curves and general dedication. By Scarbrowtalk 07:45, 19 August 2009 (UTC). Admin-specific advice This section contains specific advice for new administrators. First of all, be bold!. As an admin, you're expected to patrol the site often (through as well as your personal ) to help the newcomers and revert unproductive edits. If you do so, you can drop a note on the user's talk page (if he/she has one) explaining your reasons if you see fit to do it. Do this only if it's not an anonymous (IP) user. Do not hesitate over this. After all, if the community respects your skills and experience by granting you the power, you should wield it to good use. Be as confident in adminship duty as you are expected to be in everyday editing. After all, you have fellow admins to watch your steps, and like with users (there is no action of a user that cannot be undone by an admin) there's no action you can do that cannot be undone by other admin. * Take a look at and Category:Site maintenance, where you'll find tools to help you with your patrols as well as places where help is wanted or needed. * You can also read * If you are not afraid of the enormity of Wikipedia policy, there are many useful suggestions and resources at Wikipedia:Administrators' reading list Not commonly-used features Wikia gives us so many interesting features that no user can claim to be able or interested in using all of them at once. This section serves as a reminder for curious people of features seldom used: * Blogs: Since most players use the and sections of the forum for that, this feature is almost never used. * There are wiki forums here, but this community doesn't use them. Refer instead to the Category:Help